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Runner describes canyon fire horror

Updated
Mon 5 Sep 2011, 4:21 PM AEST

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Critical condition: Turia Pitt suffered 80 per cent burns

Cumberland Courier Newspapers

A runner who was trapped by a bushfire which left two women with 80 per cent burns during a three-day outback ultramarathon says they had to choose between becoming human fireballs or running through a wall of flame.

Eight runners were trapped when fire ripped through a gorge near El Questro station, in Western Australia's remote Kimberley region, on Friday afternoon.

Thirty-five-year-old Kate Sanderson from Victoria and 24-year-old Argyle diamond mine engineer Turia Pitt are in a critical condition in hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne with burns up to 80 per cent of their bodies.

The incident also left two men, aged 56 and 44, with major burns.

One of the injured men has described the moment the runners had to confront the wall of flame.

"We got to a situation where the flames were about two metres away from us," Michael Hull said.

"It was just horrendously hot and we were scared for our lives."

He and the three other competitors tried to run away from the blaze, but he says they eventually became trapped by the wall of fire.

[We] had a quick choice of being a human fireball and burning and that was the end, or what we did, instantaneously, is just stop and run back through the wall of flame.

Trapped runner Michael Hull

"[We] had a quick choice of being a human fireball and burning and that was the end, or what we did, instantaneously, is just stop and run back through the wall of flame," he said.

"We knew the flame, while it was high, we knew on the other side of it there was nothing left to burn."

Other competitors then came to their aid.

Mr Hull and the other man are both in a stable condition in the Royal Perth Hospital.

Police arson investigators have been called in to investigate the fire.

The organisers of the 100-kilometre race say they will investigate how the runners came to be trapped.

Racing The Planet event organiser Samantha Fanshawe would not give details of the investigation but said organisers were told there was no chance of a fire occurring on the course.

"We are looking into every detail of the incident, it was a terrible day and a terrible thing to have happened," she said.

"It was very scary for the people trapped in that gorge.

"Everyone we spoke to prior to the race said there was no risk on the course to fires," she added.

"This fire flared up very suddenly, part of the investigation is putting together a full timeline and also looking at everybody who was involved in the pre-race part. So at the moment I don't want to disclose those details."

Brett Saxon from the Ultra Runners Association is a close friend of Ms Sanderson.

"Lovely, lovely girl, very tough, she generally won't let anything beat her and I hope it's the case," he said.

"I'm really just hoping she can pull through this."

The weather bureau says conditions in the area on Friday were not serious enough to issue an official warning.

Duty forecaster Keris Arndt says although temperatures were set to reach the mid 30s across the region, wind speeds were fairly weak.

"The weather conditions that we were expecting and observed wasn't conducive to a high fire danger," he said.

"The rating that we put out was a low-moderate fire risk, which is basically the lowest rating that can go out. There wasn't a huge amount of risk as we could see it."